[ExI] bees again

[John Clark]

On Tue, May 21, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:

>> Another idea that is actually being worked on is to make bio-luminescent
>> plants. It's been estimated that if just 0.02 percent of the energy a plant
>> obtains from photosynthesis were used to make Luciferase, the protein that
>> fireflys use, a medium sized tree would be as bright as a streetlamp
>>
>
> > Hmm. Plants convert sunlight with 3-6% efficiency. So a few hundred
> Watts per square meter x 0.03 x 0.0002 = about 0.01 Watts per square meter
> - I doubt you could see anything except in very deep darkness. OK, maybe
> 0.02 percent was a typo and it is 2% - then we get somewhere around 0.24
> Watts per square meter. That you can definitely see, but it is not terribly
> bright: a 10x10 meter tree will have a total output in your direction of 24
> Watts. The weakest street-lights reach about 18 Watts


You're right! I got that .02 percent figure from a New Scientist article
but, as you point out, if you think about it a little it's obvious that it
can't be even close to being correct. Sorry. Street lights are out, maybe
decorative mood lighting?

  John k Clark
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